ON THE MODERN APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF THE HETEROGENEITY OF SOIL COVER

Abstract

Summary. The authors propose a methodological approach to the study of soil heterogeneity which is based on multispectral satellite scanning data. Multi-spectral data from the Sich-2 satellite are used for mapping and parametric description of chernozemic soils in the Northern Steppe of Ukraine: 1) to delineate soil mapping units and evaluate their spatial structure; 2) to quantitatively assess specific properties of eroded soils using geo-statistics and multi-dimensional data processing. Field description of soil profiles from the mapped soil classes demonstrated the efficacy of K-means cluster analysis for determining different elements of the soil cover. Maps of humus content, created by statistical and mathematical modelling, enabled to realize parameterization of chernozemic soils and further detailed analysis of the structure of humus scalar field.